Street Science : Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice

By Corburn, Jason

Book Id: WPLBN0000007030
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 0.3 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	Street Science : Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice
Author:	Corburn, Jason
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, United Nations., United Nations. Office for Disarmament Affairs
Collections:	Government Library Collection, Disarmament Documents
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	United Nations- Office for Disarmament Affairs (Unoda)


Citation APA MLA Chicago Corburn, J. (n.d.). Street Science : Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice. Retrieved from https://self.gutenberg.org/

Description
Government Reference Publication

Excerpt
Excerpt: At the heart of Street Science are four case studies from Greenpoint/ Williamsburg, in New York City, where diverse racial and ethnic, lowincome populations practice what Corburn calls ?science on the streets of Brooklyn.? These studies were centered on complex environmental health issues: subsistence fishing risks, asthma, childhood lead poisoning, and small sources of air pollution. Some of the larger issues addressed through these particular studies include the limits of traditional risk assessment and the politics of mapping health and environment risk. Through these studies, Corburn provides a theoretical model for understanding key characteristics of what he calls ?local knowledge,? its paradoxes, and contributions to environmental health policy. Street science, at its best, identifies hazards and highlights research questions that professionals may ignore, provides hard-to-gather exposure data, involves difficult-to-reach populations, and expands possibilities for interventions, resulting in ?improved science and democracy.? One of the strengths of this book is that it succeeds where most studies of local knowledge fail, ?scaling up? and providing generalizations about the nature of local knowledge, how it is acquired, the typical problems that occur when local and scientific knowledge conflict and why.